Sylvie George, Nicolas Bruyant, Jérôme Béard, Stefano Scotto, Ennio Arimondo, Remy Battesti, Donatella Ciampini, Carlo Rizzo

We have realized a new technique to measure pulsed magnetic fields based on the use of rubidium in the gas phase as a metrological standard. For that, we have developed a measurement device based on laser-induced transitions at about 780 nm (D2 line) in a rubidium gas contained in a miniature cell of 3 x 3 mm2 cross section. To be able to insert such a cell in a standard high-field pulsed magnet we have realized a fiber-connected probe kept at a fixed temperature.
The transition frequencies for both the π (light polarization parallel to the magnetic field) and σ (light polarization perpendicular to the magnetic field) configurations are measured by a commercial wavemeter. One innovation of our sensor is that, in addition of monitoring the light transmitted through the Rb cell – done usually – we also monitor the fluorescence emission of the gas, sampled from a very small volume with the advantage of reducing the impact of field inhomogeneities on the field measurement.
Our sensor has been tested up to fields of about 58 T and is now availaible to externals users.

Pulsed high magnetic field measurement with a rubidium vapor sensor, S. George, N. Bruyant, J. Béard, S. Scotto, E. Arimondo, R. Battesti, D. Ciampini, and C. Rizzo, Rev. Sci. Instr. 88, 073102 (2017).